Butter Love's 'art not pornography'

DONNA PAGET/Waikato Times

SPREADING THE LOVE: Massey University lecturer Stuart Shepheard said his Butter Love sculpture, which depicts two people having sex, was art not pornography.

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It is perhaps the most controversial use of butter since Marlon Brando's famous scene with Maria Schneider in Last Tango in Paris.

But visiting Massey University lecturer Stuart Shepheard said his sculpture, called Butter Love, and depicting two people having sex, was art not pornography.

It is on show for three week's at Wintec's Ramp Gallery.

The sculpture is symbolic of both the Waikato's attitudes towards sex during the '70s and '80s, and the region itself.

Mr Shepheard, a former Hamilton Boys' High School student, said attitudes in Hamilton about sex and sexual education when he was a boy were oppressive.

The sculpture represents what was then taboo regarding sex. The butter represents the fatness and fertility of the land in Waikato.

"It's kinetic art. It adds to the kitsch sensibility," he said.

Butter Love is made from polystyrene and was painted in yellow paint.

A butter oil substitute was used to cover the sculpture, with strips of the butter heated and smoothed on to the sculpture.

Mr Shepheard said the sculpture represented both repression and liberation.

"It's cheeky. It's something that is private. Sex is huge in terms of identity, religion, life and death."

The woman in the sculpture was as large as the man, which represented her strength and consent, Mr Shepheard said.

"She's not a victim. They're both into this situation. She's Amazonian."

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